Two Clems
by UnstableAnxiety
Summary: After being shot by Arvo, Clem wakes up in a familiar backyard. Why she is there, she doesn't know, but soon, a young girl appears. Will she help Clementine on her journey or will Clementine have to help her?


Hi, everyone. I just wanted to say that I got this idea from a user on Reddit who made a post throwing some ideas out there. So, all credit for the idea goes to that user. I hope you enjoy the story and have a nice day.

I also want to give a special thanks to a user on Reddit who helped me edit this because I didn't have time to edit it myself. If you see this, know you are amazing and breathtaking!

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"Why are you doing this?" Clementine asked distraught.

"He didn't give us any choice," said Mike, inching ever so slightly towards Clementine.

Arvo spat on the floor, saying something in Russian while Bonnie stood there, barely able to look Clementine in the eye.

"Give me the gun, Clem. I'm not going to hurt you," Mike assured.

Clem couldn't believe what she was hearing. She thought they were in it till the end but now, here they are, stealing for them. She was disgusted, but she wasn't going to sit idly by and let this happen. Without another thought, she yelled, "KENNY! JANE! HELP. THEY'RE ROBBING US!"

_Bang!_

She fell to the floor, blood spewing out of her shoulder as Kenny and Jane came running out the cabin; shouting and cursing while the sounds of tires screeching echoed in the distant.

Everything started to get dark for Clementine; soon, all she could see was the dark emptiness. For a moment, she thought she was dead, but then a distant light appeared. It was so far away but Clem could see it; like the light at the end of the tunnel.

It started to overpower the darkness, dissipating it. Then, without warning, the light blared like a siren going off next to her ear.

She woke up, panting and almost screaming. The pain in her shoulder slowly fading away. "What happened?" she asked herself. She looked around, "Where am I?" she wondered, examining her surroundings.

She laid in a backyard but something about this backyard seemed oddly familiar—a treehouse laid in the corner next to a tire swing.

She went up to the oddly familiar treehouse, but there was no way to climb it. "Hello!" she yelled. No one answered. "Hello?! Is anyone in there?"

Clem shook her head and walked away, thinking whatever _this_ was was probably a dream. "What is going o—"

_Thud!_

She turned back. A hammer laid on the same place Clem was standing. Was it meant for her head? Clem was pretty sure she knew the answer.

She picked it up and said in a soft voice, "Are you in there? I'm not going to hurt you."

The wooden panel to the treehouse opened and a small girl appeared. "Are you one of them?" she asked.

"One of who?" Clementine asked her.

"The monsters. They tried to get me but I hid up here," the young girl said. Clementine eyed the young girl. She wore a white dress and had hazel colored eyes. She was also familiar to Clementine but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"What's your name?" she asked.

The girl stopped, almost looking like she was about to close the wooden panel to the treehouse but quickly changed her mind, "I'm— I'm Clementine…"

Clem's eyes widened. "You can't be Clementine," she said.

"Why?" the girl asked.

"Because… I'm Clementine." _I think…_ she thought, thinking maybe she had just woken up from a nightmare and the last three years was just a dream and she wasn't actually Clementine. Maybe her name was Violet? Or Sarah? Who knew at this point.

"No, I'm Clementine," she said.

"This doesn't make any sense. How can I be here," she said to herself, walking around in circles. "I was yelling for Kenny and Jane and then—" she stopped, almost like she figured everything out but didn't know if she had. "Am I dead?" she asked the girl in the treehouse.

"What?" said the younger Clementine, confused.

"Am I dead?" she asked again, this time more firmly and demanding of an answer.

"I, uh, I don't think so… Do you feel dead?" she asked in her most innocent voice. Clem didn't answer. The girl twiddled her fingers while Clem circled at the bottom of the treehouse contemplating what was going on. "Would you like to come up?" she asked.

Clem looked at the little girl that stood at the top of the treehouse. With no other viable option, she said, "Sure."

The younger Clementine threw down the rope ladder to her treehouse and let the older Clem up. Once she was up, she pulled the rope ladder back up, ensuring no one else could enter.

Clementine took a seat across from her younger counterpart, noticing the similar features they shared. Like their nose and their hat.

"I like your hat." the older Clem said.

"Thank you," she said. "My dad gave it to me," she said sadly.

Clem started to realize that this wasn't just a random day in her life. The hammer, the way her younger self talked about her dad. Could this be the day that Lee found her?

"How old are you?" The older Clem asked.

"I'm eight," she replied.

_Three years, _she thought. _It was three years ago when Lee found me. Could it really be THAT day?! _

"How old are you?"

Clem was interrupted from her thoughts, "Oh, I'm eleven," she abruptly said. Clementine didn't know what to say. She never thought she would be talking to a younger version of herself.

"What is happening out there? My babysitter Sandra started acting all weird and she was trying to eat me."

"I… uh…" Clem pondered what to say. What could she say to make herself feel better? The only person who could have made her feel better at a time like this was dead because of her. _What would Lee say? _she thought. She knew he would try to make her feel better but wouldn't hide how dire the situation was. Especially with how the world is going to be soon. "It's a plague… I think," Clementine said.

"A plague?" she asked.

"Yes, something is turning people into monsters." Her younger self began to cry. Clem went up to her and hugged her, "I'm sorry. I thought if you knew then…" she stopped. She didn't know. She didn't know anything at this point. She wasn't her mother. She was her; IS her. She didn't know how to comfort herself.

"It's okay," she said. "I'm just scared is all."

"It's okay to be scared," Clem told her.

"Why is this happening though? What caused this?" she asked, wiping her eyes.

"I don't know…"

They sat together in silence for a while, both not knowing what to say to the other.

Clem saw as her younger self was becoming more and more scared. _Maybe telling her the truth wasn't the best idea,_ she thought. _What will make her feel better?_ _A joke? Another hug? A…_ she stopped. She knew how to make her feel better. It was the same way her dad would make her feel better whenever she was sad.

"Do you want to play a game?" she asked her younger self.

"What game?"

"Let's play… I spy!"

"Okay!" the girl smiled.

"Okay, I'll start. I spy with my little eye something… something wooden!"

Her younger self laughed, "My treehouse! That was an easy one."

"Okay, okay," she laughed. "Your turn.

"I spy with my little eye something," she smiled mischievously. "Something black."

Clem thought about it. _What was something black?_ Everything around her was wooden and brown. The hammer had a brown handle as well. _What was something black?_ she kept repeating in her head.

"Give up?" her younger counterpart smiled.

"Not yet… okay, I give up."

She laughed and said, "My tire swing!"

"That's not fair," said Clem.

"Why?"

"We can't see it. It's outside."

"You still lost," she smiled. Clem laughed and her younger self laughed as well. They both enjoyed their time, the first time they both had in a while. Neither thought this moment could be ruined.

"Hello!" A man's voice shouted. "Anybody!"

The younger Clem froze, looking at her older self. She whispered, "Who is that? Should I drop the hammer on him?"

Clem shook her head, instead, she popped her head out and saw Lee limping inside her old home.

"Is it my dad?" she asked. Her older self-pointed to the walkie-talkie, visibly telling her younger self to talk into it.

"Daddy?"

"…Hello?" A man's voice said.

The younger Clementine froze, "Who is that?" she whispered.

"A friend," she smiled.

The younger Clem looked at the walkie-talkie, saying "You need to be quiet."

"Are you ok?"

"I'm ok. They tried to get me. But I'm hiding until my parents come home."

The man on the other end, who the older Clem knew who it was, took a second to respond.

"What's your name?"

Clem stopped, looking at her older self again making sure it was okay to tell the man her name. "I'm Clementine. This is my house."

"Hi, Clementine. I'm Lee…" he paused. "Where are your parents?"

"They took a trip and left me with Sandra. They're in Savannah, I think. Where the boats are."

"Where are you?" He asked.

She looked at her older self who just smiled, assuring her it was okay to tell him. "I'm outside in my treehouse. They can't get in."

"That's smart," he said.

"See?" she said, waving out the treehouse to the man she didn't know but was told to trust. "Can you see me? I can see you through the window."

The man waved at her, smiling.

She saw something behind the man, but she couldn't tell what. It didn't take her long to realize who it was. _What_ it was. It was Sandra, her babysitter. Without a second thought, she screamed and jumped back inside the treehouse.

"What?!" her older self-asked her.

"It was a monster," she cried. "It was Sandra."

Clem went to her younger self, hugging her and comforting her. "I know you're scared but that man down there needs you!"

She looked up at her older self and she asked, "What do I do?"

Clementine handed her younger self the hammer she picked up. "Go," she encouraged her.

Her younger self looked at her, "I'm scared…"

"I know, but you need to go."

The young girl threw herself down the ladder and started to head down but looked at the older clementine one last time. Her older self smiled and she went racing to the man's aid.

Clementine watched as she ran, remembering when she did it herself. Her younger version ran to the sliding door and opened it, handing Lee the hammer.

He killed The Walker and got up, saying something to the younger Clem that the older one couldn't remember. Lee started to walk to the front gate with the girl following behind.

She stopped for a moment, looking back at the treehouse. Clem waved goodbye to her younger self and she did the same, scared but leaving with a sense of safety.

She leaned back against the wood, relieved that it went right. _It had to go right,_ she thought. She smiled and thought of all the good times she had with Lee. She was glad to see him one more time.

Out of nowhere, everything started to get blurry. Clem fell to the floor; loud voices were beginning to surround her and the pain in her shoulder was coming back. Darkness started to take sway and soon, the black emptiness was back. The light appeared in the distance again but this time, instead of blaring like a siren it sounded like voices. Two voices. They were yelling and cursing at each other.

Clem woke up in the back seat of a car. The two voices were Kenny and Jane; who were obviously yelling at each other because they could never get along, but Clem wasn't paying attention. All she could think about was her younger self and Lee.

_It was a dream,_ she thought _but it felt so real._ Whatever it was, she was happy to see Lee one more time. Maybe, in some odd way, it was his way of saying hi one last time.

_I hope I see him again._


End file.
